Hundreds of patients are having their hospital operations cancelled each year in Norfolk and Suffolk because of a shortage of beds and staff.

shares

In the first nine months of 2012 the region’s four hospitals called off 1,312 operations for “non-clinical” reasons, meaning that either no beds or staff were available or there had been a problem with hospital equipment or their administration.

And in the last two years there has been a spike in cancelled operations after Christmas at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N), with a rise of 50pc in the first quarter of 2011 and a 60pc increase in the first three months of 2012.

Figures released in Parliament show almost 1,000 procedures are postponed every year at the N&N.

Director for surgery Karen Lough said: “Traditionally the period between January and March is extremely busy with higher levels of emergency admissions.

“It is also a period during which there tends to be higher than usual levels of norovirus in the community.

“Elderly and vulnerable people tend to be worst affected by the virus and are more likely to be admitted as a result.”

She advised people to not visit patients if they had been ill with a stomach bug and said that young children should not visit the hospital “unless absolutely essential”.

Health minister and North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said it was crucial for hospitals to get patients home quicker and to treat more people at home rather than in hospitals to reduce the number of operations which had to be cancelled.

He said: “The truth is that at the N&N the number of beds available in the new hospital when it was built was pretty restrictive.

“Ever since it was built they have operated at a very high occupancy rate at usually well over 90pc.

“That means whenever there are pressures you can quickly get to a point where the hospital is overflowing and the only thing they can do is cancel operations.

“Everyone recognises these hospitals are operating under enormous pressure. The answer is to be managing people’s care better in the community.”

At the James Paget hospital just under 200 operations were cancelled in both 2010 and in 2011.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “Every effort is always made not to cancel operations and to prevent inconvenience to our patients.”

He said an increase in emergency admissions was the most frequent cause for cancellations.

But the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, where 445 operations were called off in 2011, said cancelled operations could become a thing of the past after they opened a new unit in early December.

Beds at the elective care unit are reserved for patients coming in for operations, which means they cannot be taken by other patients.

The hospital’s deputy chief executive, Mark Henry, said: “Operations for non-emergency cases could be cancelled for a variety of reasons.

“One of the principal reasons is when emergencies arise where other patients have to be treated for potentially life-threatening conditions or if there is a sudden influx of patients needing a bed while they have urgent treatment.

“Since opening our new elective care unit in early December we have not had to cancel any operations as a result of bed shortages.”

West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds said the cancelled operations represented less than 1pc of all operations carried out at the hospital each year.

New hospitals were built with fewer beds as they are in the main PFI builds and the idea was for more people to be treated at home or elsewhere, other than on a hospital ward with a greater emphasis on out patient clinics. What happened? Mainly due to immigration the population of this country has shot up and guess what? we are now short of beds. It`s got nothing to do with cut backs but the foreseen consequence of what was thought to be good ideas at the time. But then Labour was full of them weren`t they. Like the minimum wage.

main problem is the billions of pounds wasted by building the hospitals and schools under PFI schemes drawn up on the back of a fag packet. With no consideration at all about paying for it in the future, like a lot of decisions made by the previous government

Make no mistake a serious crisis is coming and not just the NHS, you can't keep allowing millions into the country when you don't have the infrastructure to cope with what you've got here now, it's just plain madness.

This EDP item highlights the problem of bad future planing when a new hospital is first thought of ... That said the uk has proved in past years on many things of poor future planing and investment ... The uk is either very expensive or playing catchup to other countries... The uk is very reliant, in fact too much so in relying on other countries for many of our needs .. In stead of being more self sufficient and producing more ... A hospital with no free beds is like a taxi with one gallon of petrol, not fit for purpose required ... But then again the same can be said for roads and railways .. Either to expensive or cannot cope with demand expected of them... To say the the beds were restricted when the hospital was built ... Proves very bad planning by high paid planners who failed in their job ... What more can one say... Very sad..... Now the public have to suffer their failure... Trouble is nothing is learnt by it as it still goes on.... Health is a priority so build what is needed... Now...!

Mr Lamb, you once threatened to resign over the Tories handling of the NHS.Yet you and your party have rubber stamped all the NHS cuts and the worst of all,allowing up to 49% of the NHS resources to used by the private sector. Just one giant step to privatising the NHS. The Tories ultimate goal. Are you and your party the NU Tories?